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The 13th round of the MotoGP World Championship (where the Movistar Yamaha MotoGP team, Rossi and Viñales are sponsored by BMC) will take place at the World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, on 8-10 September. Valentino will not compete in his home race, due to leg fractures suffered in a training accident.

The track

The Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli is located about 20 kilometers from Rimini and just over 2 kilometers from the Adriatic Sea, in 2012 the track was named for the Italian rider who tragically lost his life six years ago on the Sepang circuit.

The Misano speedway was designed in 1969 and began its activity on 1972, so is celebrating its 45th anniversary athis year. Over the course of the years, the track has undergone numerous changes until it completed its current 4.226 meters configuration in 2008.

The World Superbike Championship is also held on this track and although the Superbikes use the same track configuration, brake use is very different. The greatest difference is at the Curvone (turn 11) because the MotoGP riders are obligated to tap their brakes (1.3 seconds) in order to drop about 40 km/h, while the Superbikes can take the corner at full throttle since they enter it at a lower speed.

Naturally, the braking distance for the MotoGP bikes is shorter too because they use carbon brakes, which rules have banned from Superbike racing. This requires the MotoGP riders to exert more force every time they pull on the brake lever.

The extreme winding nature of the track prevents the bikes from reaching 300 km/h even once. However, there are five corners that have to be taken at than 90 km/h, so deceleration is significant. Another issue, in terms of cooling down the systems, is the air temperature: During the 2016 race, the temperature of the tarmac was over 43°C.

According to Brembo technicians, who assist 100% of the 2017 MotoGP pilots, Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli is fairly demanding on the brakes. On a scale of 1 to 5, it earned a 3 on the difficulty index, and out of the races still to be contested this year, this same score was given only to the track in Valencia.

The demand on the brakes during the GP

The 16 corners on the track correspond to nine braking sections, each one very different from the others. There are couple that require riders to brake for almost five seconds and others that need just over one second; others still obligate braking for three seconds. During one full lap, the MotoGP bikes use their brakes for 30 seconds, while the Superbikes apply them for 29 seconds since there is one less braking section (8 instead of 9).

Over the 27 laps of the race, each MotoGP rider turns to his brakes for at least 14 minutes. Summing up all of the force applied by a rider on the Brembo brake lever from the starting line to the checkered flag, the result comes in at about 1.170 kg, compared to the 815 kg applied by the Superbike pilots, but they race for 21 laps. On a single lap, MotoGP riders apply more force than the Superbike pilots: 41,9 kg compared to 38,8 kg.

The average peak deceleration of the MotoGP bikes on this circuit is 1.19 G and that of the Superbikes is 1.06 G. 1.19 G may seem moderate but it is 0.05 G more than the peak deceleration that an Infiniti FX45 experiences.

The most demanding braking sections

Of the nine braking sections at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, only one is classified as demanding on the brakes, 4 are of medium difficulty and the remaining 4 are light.

For both the Superbikes and MotoGP bikes, braking at the Quercia (turn 8) is the most challenging on the track: The MotoGP bikes slow down from 294 km/h to 79 km/h in 4.8 seconds and 222 meters. The Superbikes arrive going 24 km/h slower but need a few extra yards and 4.9 seconds to make the turn.

In this corner, the MotoGP bikes surpass the Superbikes also for the peak deceleration (1.5 G against 1.3 G) and for the load placed on the lever (6 kg against almost 5,3 kg), but they manage to contain the pressure on the Brembo HTC 64T brake fluid to 10.4 bar while the Brembo brake fluid in the Superbikes reaches 11.4 bar.

Braking on the first corner after the starting line also goes over 200: The speeds drop 156 km/h, going from 271 km/h to 115km/h. For the Superbikes, the gap in the speed is lower (140 km/h), but the use of steel discs means that the braking distance is much greater, up to 251 meters more.

The pressure of the brake fluid is higher and the load greater on the lever for the MotoGP bikes at the Misano (turn 16), which is downhill: 10.6 bar (more than triple a bottle of champagne) and 6 kg.

The tyres situation

The 4,226m circuit has some very particular demands over its 10 right- and 6 left-handed turns and Michelin has taken the decision to offer the riders a different option of tyres rather than the usual soft, medium and hard choices. To cope with the high-temperatures, abrasive surface and increased stresses placed on the tyres, Michelin will offer two medium front specification tyres and one hard, with the same selections available for the rear. This still gives the choice of three front and rear tyres for each rider, but with a slight alteration to the compound availability.

The rear Michelin Power Slicks will all be of an asymmetric design with a harder right shoulder and will feature two medium compound tyres, one of which has the ability to warm-up slightly quicker for riders who need to get heat in the tyre as soon as possible. Michelin’s decision to alter the allocation continues to show its pro-active commitment to supplying the best tyres for each rider at every event and giving a choice to all manufacturers and riding styles.